By Dipo Olowookere
The stock market in Nigeria grew by 0.98 per cent on Wednesday following buy interest in the shares of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and 19 others.
Yesterday, the financial institution posted its results for 2020 and apart from recommending a final dividend of N3.60, it proposed the issuance of bonus shares to shareholders.
This pushed bargain hunters, especially dividend investors, into action and resulted in the 9.99 per cent rise in the value of the stock, closing at N48.45.
Business Post reports that also during the session, the price of NPF Microfinance Bank appreciated by 9.60 per cent to N1.94, Cornerstone Insurance gained 8.93 per cent to sell for 61 kobo, Guinness Nigeria improved by 8.76 per cent to N27.30, while Oando gained 8.68 per cent to trade at N3.38.
A total of 16 equities closed on the losers’ log at the midweek session, with MRS Oil on top after its value dropped 9.70 per cent to quote at N12.10.
Coronation Insurance (Wapic) lost 9.09 per cent to sell at 50 kobo, Lafarge Africa went down by 7.11 per cent to N20.90, Africa Prudential fell by 5.45 per cent to N5.20, while Livestock Feeds declined by 4.74 per cent to N1.81.
The level of activities improved on Wednesday as investors traded 361.9 million shares worth N5.7 billion in 4,018 deals compared with the 277.2 million stocks worth N3.1 billion traded the previous session in 3,937 deals, indicating a 30.54 per cent rise in the trading volume, 86.75 per cent increase in the trading value and 2.06 per cent growth in the number of deals.
Union Bank closed the session as the most active stock after it transacted 79.4 million units valued at N420.5 million and was trailed by GTBank, which sold 72.6 million shares for N2.3 billion.
Veritas Kapital traded 50.3 million equities valued at N10.5 million, Eko Corporation exchanged 20.0 million stocks worth N120.0 million, while Zenith Bank traded 16.7 million shares valued at N367.0 million.
Yesterday, three of the five major sectors of the market closed bullish with the consumer goods sector rising by 0.73 per cent. The energy counter rose by 0.68 per cent, while the industrial goods space grew by 0.65 per cent.
During the third trading session of the week, the insurance index lost 0.56 per cent, while the banking sector went down by 0.21 per cent.
However, the All-Share Index (ASI), which measures the overall performance of the market, appreciated by 380.81 points to close at 39,085.78 points in contrast to the preceding day’s 38,704.97 points.
Also, the market capitalisation, which measures the total value of shares listed on the bourse, increased by N199 billion to finish at N20.450 trillion as against N20.251 trillion it ended on Tuesday.
